We all attend to “VII Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Mikołaja Kopernika in Czestochowa“, which means Copernicus Secondary School. It is one of the best schools in the city and in the province and is regarded as prestigious.
The school is not very big but not small as well – with about 820 students. It is situated in the city centre. It is comprehensive school so we are provided with “academic knowledge”. We do not learn any profession.

5. Classes with leading subjects for year 2012/2013:
I a – biology, chemistry, physics ( with English and Russian/ or French )
I b – English , Polish, history, cultural knowledge ( with English and French )
I c – Polish, English or/ German, history, society knowledge ( with German, English )
I d – mathematics, computer science, physics ( with English and German )
I e – English, Russian, history, society knowledge ( with English and Russian )
I f – English, Polish, history, society knowledge ( with English, French )
I g – mathematics, geography, society knowledge ( with English, German or/ Russian )
I h – mathematics, geography, society knowledge ( with English, German )

Maximum number of students – 30 !

6. Compulsory foreign languages: English, French, German and Russian

7. Graduates who were admitted to universities: over 96%

8. We took part in international students’ exchanges: YFU – a year exchanges in USA, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium in families with school Students’ exchange with friendly school in Kronberg – 2 weeks in families with school Socrates-Comenius with schools in 6 countries.

9. School papers: nowadays there are no existing inner school papers however Copernicus started the cooperation with Życie Częstochowy. It is a newspaper published in Częstochowa. We will have two separate sheets to write on the topics we’re interested in. You will have an opportunity to read our articles every month since March 2008.

10. Infrastructure:
– Two Computer Laboratories: 11+ 15 = 26 computers
– Gymnasium Sports Field
– Body Building Gym
– Physician Room
– School Shop
– School Library
– School Psychologist
– Radio Centre11. Changes & Reform. Students have been learning in reformed education system for few years. In the past secondary school lasted for 4 years, now its 3 years. We have had new subjects for few years: Entrepreneurship knowledge, Cultural knowledge.In September 2012 we will welcome the first students of new curriculum ( beginning from primary school and later junior high school ) which we are going to continue.

Copernicus is one of those schools, which place emphasis on European Education. The best way to realise this idea are international exchanges. Our school takes advantages of the fact that there are some organisations or programmes, which make the ideas possible to come true.

Traces of cultures within participating countries. The aim of the project is to enable the youth from Europe to meet each other and to learn about other countries developing a deeper understanding of themselves within a European Cultural context.

They will exchange information about history, lifestyle, geography, civic education, literature, art, economic and legal systems by communicating with each other using ICT and face-to-face meetings of students during the mobilities.

The project will present and discuss the elements of cultural heritage by identifying the traces of cultures of every partner country.

Creating varied opportunities for dialogue will ensure that students develop a deep knowledge and understanding of the concepts of European Citizenship and regional diversity. Students from the participating countries will exchange opinions; negotiate; celebrate diversity; become aware of European and national identity; and develop a working atmosphere of friendly and peaceful cooperation within the enlarged European Union. They will show their understanding in a variety of ways: A Website; CD ROM; a day by day calendar showing images of the traces of culture across the partnership; and a book which will contain more extended articles and essays written by the students on the key themes of the project.

The main working language of the project is going to be English, but trans-national communication will also take place using other languages, especially French and German. This will enable all students and teachers across the partnership to widen their language abilities and gain fluency in using the foreign language in real situations.

There are 5 partner schools: from Poland (a coordinating school), the UK, Finland, France and Belgium.

Prepared by: Ms. Korpus

YFU-P: Youth for Understanding Poland is one of the most famous public organisations, which gives students an opportunity to take active part in family, school and society life in foreign country. This organisation gives a chance to develop sensitivity for cultural similarities and differences and also to deepen understanding for common ideas and values. Besides, it is a fine way to discover and to improve foreign languages. Students are able to leave for a foreign country e.g. USA or some European states for a year to study. Some of them continue their education at colleges abroad after.

VII Copernicus Secondary School cooperates with Youth For Understanding Poland from over 11 years. Since 1993, 19 pupils have gone to: USA, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland. Thanks to YFU, student Kevin Thurley from Berlin stayed at our place during school year 1997/98.

Socrates Comenius is European Union programme for school children, which are interested in European issues. Its aim is enriching knowledge about other countries and strengthening integration processes with European Union. According to Maastricht treaty, it promotes the banner: “Europe in school”. This programme is based on realization of various educational ventures in the field of protecting cultural heritage, ecology and learning foreign languages.

Seven subjects were established:
1. Making maps ” European pilgrimage ways”
2. Making interviews with pilgrims to Czestochowa. Their opinions of pilgrimage way, their expectations and hopes.
3. Making photography galleries and leaflets:
a) European pilgrimage ways
b) Czestochowa as the most famous pilgrimage destination in Poland
4. Making album with photos and opinions of: “Life in city of pilgrimages “.
5. Making art gallery: “Artisanship, art and kitsch during pilgrimage”.
6. Making comparative work: “Customs and traditions of Polish and European pilgrims”.
7. Making lists of pilgrimage songs. In February 2001 in co-ordinating school in Leon (Spain) the official meeting of delegation of students and teachers from schools realizing project took place. Each school presented their researches, so-called products.

Socrates Comenius programme, which we took part in, didn’t provide students exchanges. Although, it enabled pupils and teachers to contact with foreign schools and people. It gave us the opportunities to visit our newly meet friend. We’re still in touch with them for almost 4 years.

Polish-German short-term exchanges

In 1991 our school began cooperation with Altkonigschule in Kronberg in Germany.
Altkonigschule is associated with UNESCO, has lots of international contacts with e.g. Singapore, Russia, USA. Within the confines of cooperation we organized two weeks-long exchanges for Polish, German and English students. In September and October 1997 r. our students stayed at English families in Clintonville in England, and at German families in Kronberg in Germany. Every second year a group of 30 our school students leave for Kronberg for to weeks to stay at German families. German students pay us return visits.

We have made also connections with Bugenhagen – Schulen – Gesamtschule mit Integrationsklassen – secondary school with integration classes. The latest exchange was in 14.04-22.04 2002 in Hamburg, and the revisit will be in 13.06-20.06 2002. Beside interesting school activities, specially prepared for Polish-German group, numerous tourist and cultural events took place, like: tour of Hamburg, ship cruise around the port, voyage to Hansa-park, museum of art, classical music concert and many other.

I must admit that our school is very well prepared to fight against this problem. There are lots of competitions which both please and learn. Pupils fill those polls and questionnaires not awaring of the fact how big their knowledge is. It’s great idea to encourage young people to consider this case in that way. We all know youngsters like to show off. I mean not only some accidents which sometimes happen, but also real situations. When someone is a victim or a witness of a crime, he usually doesn’t talk about it , or if , he laughs and changes it into a joke. Youngsters don’t like to express their weakness. That’s why I’m a great follower of the school’s actions.

The teachers’ attitude towards bullying is also worth mentioning. All teaching staff cooperates with The Provincial Police in case of trouble. Thanks to them till now we have had competitions connected with alcohol, drugs, violence, bullying and sects.
The only event connected with this topic is an accident which had happened a year before I came to this school. Year after year we had ‘baptisms’-each student who came to school had to experience it. Second classes made up some stupid tasks which ‘kittens’-first year students had to do. But after one pupil had been hit by a brick in his teeth, the tradition was over. Our year had to tolerate ‘pussy-pussy’ saying by older students. But nevertheless we were glad.

Generally speaking our school doesn’t have that problem. It’s its big advantage.

Smoking

Although smoking is such a bad habit, we have few students in our school who smoke, not of course at school, as it is strictly forbidden! To present it somehow and to make young people realize about possible effects relevant with smoking, teachers organize some special meetings concerning this problem.

There are another advantages of these meetings: you don’t have to come to school after your lessons because they are made during them, for example as a conversation on English lessons.
You can learn about your health and improve your English (as it was mentioned in my friend’s opinion about school our knowledge of English is almost excellent).

Furthermore, there are some posters hanging on classes’ door, which show how your heart or brain looks after using cigarettes for a long time.

Students of VII L.O. very willingly co-operate with local community – citizens of Czestochowa. Our school is an important part of local society. School is made up of people and people of our school are involved almost in every part of city’s life.

We actively take part in ceremonies:
Colour guard actively participate in every city’s ceremony, e.g. every national holiday like 1 September or 11 November.
Colour guard went to Concert Hall of Czestochowa to participate in ceremony of bestowal Herbert (national poet) as patron on I Social L.O. in Czestochowa.
Women’s chorus gives concerts in churches from time to time.

We also take part in organising some events:
23 September 2001 there were national elections in Poland. We prepared special classroom for polling station. It is simple example for helping local and national authorities.
28 February – Provincial Astronomy and Astronautics Seminary and I Copernicus Secondary Schools Forum. It was competition and ceremony at the same time. Our school organised forum for secondary school with Copernicus as their patron. It was an opportunity to contact with other schools students and to talk about Copernicus. Taking advantage of it, Astronomy and Astronautics Competition regional final were organised. The organizer MGR Urszula Jeruszka had an interview with local press reporters.
21 March – on the Spring’s Day (which is also called “truant day”) pupils went to Czestochowa Polytechnic Hall and took part in discussion entitled: “The media in business”.
There was “European Forum” on 18 and 19 April 2002. This was interschool competition for primary, middle and secondary schools. Our Europe Club created one of for stations making some part of school building available to contestants. We had to organise questions and materials.
In the afternoon a large group of students went to ZSSB (Motor and Building Secondary School) where leaders had an interview with local TV reporters – interview was screened on TV the next day.

Students support charity organisations too:
23-25 November 2001 and 15-17 March – food collections for Food Bank of Czestochowa took place in Billa (one of supermarkets in Czestochowa centre). Our friends had to stand for several hours and encourage people to leave some food stuff (e.g. sugar, rice, flour, pastas and sweets). They gave lots of leaflets with information about poverty and talked to large number of people. All undertakings were great successes. Last time we managed to collect about ten very big boxes (there had been washing machines in them before). This was repetition of last year actions.
A friend of mine who took part in it said it was great pleasure. She laughed whenever some old lady asked: “How much is that sugar?”
December 2001 – some students went to small baby orphanage with a visit. They gave away lots of presents. These were: clothes, toys and sweets. They were received very warmly by nuns. They were allowed to sign in visitors’ book.

We willingly help charity organisations by fund-rising:
There was money collection for Fundacja Janiny Ochojskiej (Janina Ochojska Foundation) under the banner of: ” Zlotowka dla dzieci z Afganistanu” (“One Zloty for Afghan Children”). We managed to collect 220 PLN.
“Gora Grosza” (“Penny Mountain”) was famous nationwide campaign. Children were allowed to give only change. Than all the money was counted and weighed.
November, December and January. Collecting money for “Wielka Orkiestra Swiatecznej Pomocy” (“Great Orchestra of Christmas Help”) lasted three months. It is the most famous and the most popular charity. It mixes great fun with noble intentions and unites every kind of people.
Pupils take part in sport events.

—– OPINION —–

The school’s advantages

We felt it was essential to describe some good sides of attending to our school. It is impossible to show all advantages because for different people very different things matter.

When we are thinking of the school we are thinking of people. People who create the school life, I mean our friends, students and teachers I know or not. All of them are the best people we could ever imagine. All our school friends are very nice; we go on very well with each other. We often pay each other visits, from time to time we meet in pubs or in discos and have very nice time. We spend holidays together too. We can feel now that these are friendships for life. Teachers are great too. They provide us with incredible large knowledge but are also our friends. We have great respect for all of them. We all know that it is as it should be.

This school is regarded as prestigious in Czestochowa. The education standard is high. It is important because we know that we are able to meet the most demanding criteria and can manage in my future life.

The European education is very important here. We have special lessons in order to know as much as possible about European Union. International students’ exchanges are what our school is famous for in Czestochowa.

There are lots of traditions and customs in our school, which are precisely respected. All of them, even the smallest create special atmosphere inside and allow us to identify ourselves as members of “Copernicus Society”. They make us proud of the fact that we are part of something great. And we are proud indeed.

Our school is not one of those old-fashioned schools, for sure. There is modern attitude to pupils, who enjoy the great liberty of. It is the most visible in clothing where good taste and manners are the only limitations.

Every student of Copernicus Secondary School in Czestochowa loves laughing. We do it all the time during breaks and sometimes during lessons (in this case we have to be quiet which isn’t always possible). We tell jokes, pretend to be someone else, we trick on each other etc.

The school tries to come up to our expectations. There are lots of circles, where we can learn and have fun at the same time. These are e.g. sports circle, shooting, photography, and theatre and computer science circle. As we said it is impossible to write about all advantages. If You want to know some details ask us directly by e-mails.

Our school…

What I like in there mostly is the climate, which it has. It is thanks to their students, but not only. Almost every student seems to have his own style. It is showed mostly through their dressing style. The amplitude of dressing style is extremely high. I like to make some decorations on my clothes or some extra things by myself. I love beads, especially wooden, I have lots of them. Things very sophisticated (but not exaggerated), or rare are for me very attractive. So when I see someone, who looks a bit different than the others and do not loose the taste at the same time, I admire it. The styles are from ‘skates’ with large jeans a la Eminem or Fred Durst, to the ‘hippies’ or ‘metal listeners’. Nevertheless, everyone is tolerant.

One of school’s small problem is the organisation, especially of space. There are too many students in it. Of course I don’t wish anybody bad luck, finally you can get used to this lack of space. The perfect example of this disorganisation was when somebody (?) called our school and said there was a bomb. Then the real horror happened. We were pushed into the shelter (!) where our locks are . The traffic was so big that changing the floor took 5 minutes. It was false alert of course, there was no bomb. One Week later we got information about our punishment… (wanna know more? – write to me)

By this note I didn’t mean to hurt anybody
Ania

Three years ago I graduated from Primary School. I was 15 years old and I had many plans for the future. For last two years I wanted to be an actress, but was also, very ambitious and I didn’t want to give up mental career. That’s why I decided to continue learning at one of the best secondary school in my town. Almost three years ago I took up education at “Copernicus”, the 7th Secondary School in Czestochowa. Like in every school, there are good and bad sides of being a student in my school.

Advantages• Like I said at the beginning, in the past I was really interested in acting. In my school I could fulfil my dreams. Every year there are two occasions to show musical and theatre abilities. * First is “Copernicalies”. This is an affair, which took its name from the name of our patron. It is celebrated on March 21. Learners are to decorate the classrooms and prepare some plays or performances about school life, about some big event or something they simply like. There is always a lot of fun. Imagine yourself a group of people disguised as a mouse or fat chef. This is also a very good chance to meet new friends. *Second big affair is the day of European Union. At this occasion we also prepare some plays but they deal with the history of several countries from EU.• If you want to travel over the world, come to my school! Every year our teachers organize a trip to some foreign country. I was on this kind of trip only once, but I must say it was unforgettable experience. I was really surprised when I saw how teachers could be kind and cheerful in situation like this.• There are many chances to see our own country. For example, my teacher from French, who is also a tutor of my class, likes theatre very much. This is the reason why we are in Krakow every year (there is quite famous theatre).• Teaching & learning.. Some of the teachers are really amazing. Every student has some problems. I had them too. That was at the day when I was leading special concur for children from primary and secondary schools. My class had lessons at this time. At the break my friend (I won’t tell his name) came to me and told me that I got a very bad mark from the subject, which I am going to have on my entry exams. Maybe it is stupid, but I was so nervous that I couldn’t continue my work. And then a very nice surprise came. The teacher, who doesn’t know me very well because she has only one lesson per week with my class, started to talk with me. She was so kind and friendly that after two minutes everything was good.• Lessons can be very boring. English lessons aren’t. If you go to the article about SMOKING you will see what I mean.• Clothes & tolerance. You can wear flowery blouses and checked trousers or be the man in black, or be a skate man and you will be tolerated in our school.

Disadvantages which we are trying to cope with• Our school is a little bit too small and there is a large number of students.• There is also a problem with toilets. The number of cabins is too small to such a large group of girls studying at school.• Students are under very big pressure of learning to live up to teachers’ and parents’ expectations. Sometimes you don’t even have time for yourself or for your friends. If you want to be good, to have good marks, you must get used to waking up at 5.30 a.m. and going to bed at 12.00 p.m. (like in my case-I’m a very hardworking student). Very often at the and of one term you look like a lunatic because you must learn for three or four tests at the same time.• We don’t have a swimming pool. At the first class we used to go to another school for swimming, but it was only for one year. Now we have lessons in the gym class, which is on the second floor. Because of this fact, you can hear someone playing basketball during the lessons. In fact he is doing it above your head. We also don’t have discos at school. The roof can fall down under such a big heaviness.• The last thing is the system of passing the information on. For example the dates of meeting for parents are often conveyed too late, although there are still students who try to hide it from their parents. Consequences of this fact are simple. Many parents don’t know the recent changes in the system of teaching and they have many questions.
Anna-Maria Szalas

This text contents my private feelings and opinions.

Let’s start from the very beginning.

When I was going to be a student of VII Copernicus Secondary School in Czestochowa the school had very good reputation (I suppose it still has it). It was one of the happiest days in my life when I heard that I had passed the entry exams and had been accepted to be a member of the “Copernicus society”. The first year was great. I was amazed by the respect, which teachers were showing to students. I was also surprised by the perfection in keeping the traditions of the school. The idealized image of the school’s life was heightened by the international student’s exchanges, which pupils of our school took part in that time. Unfortunately, after a year things began to change. At the moment I started second year of my education in this school I noticed changes for worse. It is hard to describe but I think that people lost their enthusiasm. The simplest example is the situation in the spring of 2001. My class, as well as others, was to go to three-days trip at the end of second term. The ambitious plan came to nothing. Since then I have always wondered what went wrong. Those days I could still find an excuse, considering that others trips took place. This was just single example but there were others. Just petty details. All of them meant nothing alone but when we put them together, idealized image began to disappear.

The third year has been culmination.

When I’m thinking of this year, I’m thinking of two matters. First matter is the private life of my classmates and mine. The traditional “half-way point ball”, which took place in November 2001, was a great success. Then Friday evening’s meets and home parties confirmed me in the conviction that everything went good with my class. Class life has flourished. I thought it would be the best year of my life (and it has been so indeed). Privately, I have had nothing to complain about this year. Unfortunately nothing’s perfect. When it comes to second important this year’s matter, I mean school in general, it turned out to be much more complicated. The “third year relaxation” occurred. Second and third year are usually regarded as more relaxing so teachers try to keep discipline. It is true that some students’ behaviour worsens during this time but I don’t think I’m one of them. But what is the most important in my words is that all students are treated equally so I am put on a par with those students. I just can’t accept such situation. Fortunately there are exceptions to the rule. Assessment of school’s life is a debatable thing. For almost a year I haven’t seen school paper “European Graffiti”, although it was released irregularly from time to time. “Copernicus” was published on 13 April for the second time this year. Some of traditional ceremonies didn’t take place, which was very unusual here. There were also lots of success in other activities – see “Achievements page” and “Society Connections page”. The only thing I can say is that all these events became less visible.

To draw a conclusion I’d like to say that I’m not disappointed with the school. It is just like others and it still provides high level of education. It doesn’t even matter whether it comes up to my expectations (my expectations can be excessive). There are lots of outstanding students in our school. In my opinion it should be the school’s goal to make the most of them and it is indeed. The hitch is that sometimes I can’t see enthusiasm both in students and in teachers’ actions.

Jarek Wójcik

Secondary school should teach life and help almost adult youths to discover their place in this great value of living. And if only it would give an excellent education, it would be an ideal school.

VII Copernicus Secondary School in Czestochowa is one of the kinds. Everyone has got here chances to improve his abilities and to make the dreams come true, especially dreams connected with international student’s exchanges. Proudly saying, it’s one of the best schools in our region. I’ll not lie also, telling You, that it’s now on the first place in education level from the schools in Czestochowa. This is proved by the most objective ranking, which includes the results from General Certificate Of Secondary Education. Copernicus is particularly well known because of his very high level of teaching foreign languages and other humanistic subjects.

Like You see, this partially affected in creating this English language web site and reflects our abilities. I doubt, that we are some geniuses, but good school should learn well and practically, and we’re now using our skills, achieved or improved here in Copernicus. You may in a way, judge us and our school, basing on everything what we described here.

But reality is a little bit different than just plain words. Everything what we achieve here is our huge effort. School can only help us on the road to the future, which we chose, but won’t do the work for pupils. Almost everyone succeeded or at least has tried to achieve something important for himself by taking part in the many different competitions and by having good results in learning. Please remember that good education doesn’t mean that life here is nice and easy. Sometimes it’s very hard to plan reasonable the time for the learning and the entertainment. As for the teachers, there are some “born teachers”, great mentors and few who are not cut out for teaching. But this is a school of life, and real life could be tough, so maybe the adults are preparing us beforehand for this or have already hit the hard rocks to often and now are out of vital energy.

The Copernicus School has some great traditions, which were initiated a long time ago and now the actual headmistress and the teachers continue them. It’s very important for our young mentality to have such a feeling of membership and a respect for the past. The most beautiful thing is that school really tries to make us the representants of high-level Polish culture. Unfortunately for everybody some constant events are being delayed and even not present in nowadays situations. It’s because of too many reasons, and the Heads of the school aren’t coping with those problems and won’t do it alone, without proprietary support.

You may here feel quite funny. It’s sometimes like swinging or riding the rollercoaster. There’re the good days with pupils smiling, having a good time, some average days, when we are bored a lot and the bad days with stressed minds and sometimes even cries in our eyes and hearts. There are simply ups and downs. Of course there are some problems, but having the courage to live and learn is to have the abilities to firmly cope with troubles.

The Copernicus is full of ideas, how the school should evolve and change its image for an even better one. The only real problem is the difficulty to unite two forces of clever minds: pupils and teachers. People in this school have such huge power to create, but it is used in a minimal. If only we could proprietary communicate and combine together, we could make this school the best for everyone, where there are extremely less frontiers between people.